worm on my Flower pot (Picture)

[Ehgemus]

What kind or worm is this on my flower pot coral? it is about 4" long. It has been on there for two months, should I take it off or leave it be?

 

[John Kelly]

I lightened your image and reposted it:

It is a type of syllid worm that is occasionally found meandering around the base of the polyps on Goniopora (flower pot coral). In all of the instances that I know of, the worm is harmless.

BTW: Goniopora is considered to be a "hard" coral and not a "soft" coral. Also, it looks like your coral has a bud on it .

 

[Ehgemus]

Thanks for lighting up the picture for me. I am waiting for the bud to get bigger and fall off, someone else told me it would get about 1" before it will fall. is that about right? sorry about the soft coral, hard coral thing I don't know the difference yet.

 

[John Kelly]

Your welcome!

Yes, the skeleton will get about 3/4" - 1" before it falls off, but if the coral becomes stressed it can fall off sooner. I just had one fall off of mine the other day (3rd one). It took 10 months from the time it first formed to the time it dropped .

A "hard" coral has a hard calcium skeleton and a "soft" coral doesn't. The hard corals tend to be unofficially classified as Small Polyped Stony (SPS) corals and Large Polyped Stony (LPS) corals. Goniopora are considered to be LPS corals.

Hope that helps! :thumbsup:

 

[Ehgemus]

10 months to drop that is longer than I thought. Thank for the help.